Q. The Government’s national broadband network plan is to more quickly roll out fibre to local nodes and let Telstra’s copper network carry internet traffic to households, compared to Labor’s plan to roll out fibre to every household outside rural areas, which would cost more and have taken longer but produced higher speeds. Which plan do you believe is best for Australia?

Total

Vote Labor

Vote Lib/Nat

Vote Greens

Vote other

The Liberal Government’s plan

29%

7%

63%

6%

26%

The Labor plan

38%

62%

12%

66%

43%

Don’t know

33%

31%

25%

28%

31%

38% think the Labor NBN plan is best for Australia and 29% think the Government’s plan is best. 33% did not give an opinion. These views were consistent across age groups.

Q. Would you support or oppose privatisation of the following Government-owned corporations?

Total support

Total

oppose

Strongly support

Support

Oppose

Strongly oppose

Don’t know

Medibank Private

29%

54%

5%

24%

26%

28%

18%

Australia Post

20%

69%

4%

16%

26%

43%

11%

The ABC and SBS

21%

64%

5%

16%

25%

39%

14%

The National Broadband Network

28%

58%

7%

21%

24%

34%

14%

Snowy Hydro

17%

53%

3%

14%

23%

30%

30%

Australian Rail Track Corporation (which runs much of the interstate train network)

23%

58%

5%

18%

25%

33%

19%

There was majority opposition to privatising each of the Government-owned corporations listed.

Privatisation of Australia Post (69%) and ABC/SBS (64%) were most strongly opposed.

While support for privatisation of these corporations was higher among Liberal/National voter, they were still more likely to oppose than support. Apart from Medibank Private (40% support/46% oppose) and the NBN (42%/46%), a majority of Liberal/National voters opposed privatisation of each corporation.

Q. Under Kevin Rudd’s leadership, do you think the Labor Party should dump, change or keep their policies on the following issues?

Dump

Keep

Change

Don’t know

Handling of asylum seekers

21%

10%

51%

17%

Building the NBN

14%

50%

15%

15%

The mining tax

29%

30%

24%

18%

The carbon tax

39%

25%

23%

13%

The Gonski education reforms

15%

44%

16%

25%

The NDIS

7%

59%

9%

25%

Respondents were most likely to think the Labor Party under Kevin Rudd should keep the NDIS (59%), building the NBN (50%) and the Gonski reforms (44%).

51% think it should change the policies around handling asylum seekers and 39% think it should dump the carbon tax. Opinions were divided over the mining tax – 30% keep, 29% dump and 24% change.

Labor voters were most in favour of keeping the NBN (78%), the mining tax (47%), the carbon tax (39%), the Gonski reforms (67%) and the NDIS (74%) but favoured changing the policy on asylum seekers (56%).

Q. Thinking about the decisions the Labor Government has made over the last few years, do you think the following decisions were good or bad for Australia?

Total good

Total bad

Very good

Good

Neither good nor bad

Bad

Very bad

Don’t know

Sep 12 good

Sep 12 bad

Expanding dental health services for people on low incomes

73%

8%

28%

45%

15%

4%

4%

5%

77%

5%

Increasing the tax free threshold from $6,000 to $18,200

72%

8%

34%

38%

15%

5%

3%

5%

75%

4%

Increasing the age pension

67%

14%

27%

40%

16%

10%

4%

4%

70%

11%

Protecting large areas of Australia’s marine environment in a network of marine reserves

66%

10%

27%

39%

19%

6%

4%

5%

67%

8%

Introducing the National Disability Insurance Scheme

63%

9%

26%

37%

20%

5%

4%

8%

58%

5%

Increasing superannuation from 9% to 12%

62%

14%

24%

38%

19%

10%

4%

5%

68%

9%

Stimulus spending to tackle the Global Financial Crisis (GFC)

50%

26%

21%

29%

19%

17%

9%

5%

54%

22%

Introducing a tax on large profits of mining companies

49%

27%

21%

28%

20%

15%

12%

5%

49%

25%

Building the NBN (National Broadband Network)

48%

28%

22%

26%

18%

15%

13%

6%

43%

28%

Paid parental leave

48%

22%

14%

34%

24%

13%

9%

5%

52%

20%

Spending on new school buildings during the GFC

47%

26%

12%

35%

20%

15%

11%

6%

53%

22%

Implementing the recommendations of the Gonski report to increase education funding

46%

22%

17%

29%

23%

12%

10%

9%

54%

8%

Abolished WorkChoices

42%

27%

23%

19%

22%

17%

10%

10%

42%

27%

Introducing a carbon tax to tackle climate change

32%

48%

14%

18%

16%

18%

30%

4%

28%

51%

The two most popular decisions of the Labor Government are ‘expanding dental health services for people on low incomes’ (73% total good) and ‘increasing the tax free threshold from $6,000 to $18,000 (72% total good). The least popular decisions were ‘Implementing the recommendations of the Gonski report (46% total good), ‘Abolished WorkChoices’ (42% total good) and ‘introducing a carbon tax to tackle climate change’ (32% total good).

The only issue which received a net negative response was ‘introducing a carbon tax to tackle climate change’, where 48% of respondents believed it to be bad for Australia.

Since this question was previously asked last September, perceptions of most decisions have become a little more negative – with the exceptions of the “carbon tax” which shifted from 28% to 32% ‘good’, the ‘NDIS’ which shifted from 58% to 63% ‘good’ and building the NBN which shifted from 43% to 48% ‘good’.

The largest negative shifts were for the ‘Gonski recommendations’ (down 8% to 46%), increasing super (down 6% to 62%) and spending on schools during the GFC (down 6% to 47%).

Q. The Government’s NBN (National Broadband Network) is a fast, high capacity fibre network to the home reaching 93% of Australian homes and businesses.

The Coalition has proposed a broadband plan in which the NBN would be replaced with broadband fibre to local “nodes” (or exchanges) and the existing telephone copper network would connect the rest of the way to homes. This would mean slower broadband speeds than the NBN but cost less to build. Do you support the Government’s or the Coalition’s broadband policy?

Total

Vote Labor

Vote Lib/Nat

Vote Greens

Support Government’s policy

54%

83%

31%

74%

Support the Coalition’s policy

23%

4%

46%

7%

Don’t know

23%

12%

23%

19%

54% support the Government’s broadband policy and 23% support the Coalition’s policy.

For those aged 18-34, 61% support the Government’s policy and 15% support the Coalition’s. 51% of those aged 35-54 and 49% of those aged 55+ support the Government’s policy.

The Minerals Resource Rent Tax (MRRT) – a tax on large profits of mining companies

63%

22%

57%

29%

24%

33%

15%

14%

14%

The carbon pricing scheme – a tax on industries based on the amount of carbon pollution they emit

46%

44%

44%

46%

17%

27%

20%

26%

10%

The decision which has the most support amongst respondents is the NBN, with 73% in favour and only 19% opposed – an increase in support since this question was last asked in November (from net +49 to net +54).

There is majority support from respondents for the MRRT, with 57% in favour of the tax and 29% opposed. However, this represents a significant drop in support since November – from net +41 to net +28.

Support for the carbon pricing scheme has declined a little since the last time the question was polled in November. Support has decreased from 46% to 44% and opposition increased from 44% to 46% – a change from net +2 to net -2.

Q. If the Liberal and National parties win the next election, should they repeal any of these Government decisions?

Yes, should repeal

No, should not repeal

Don’t know

The carbon pricing scheme

45%

37%

18%

NBN (National Broadband Network)

18%

63%

20%

The Minerals Resource Rent Tax (MRRT)

24%

50%

28%

A greater portion of respondents believe that a Coalition government should repeal the carbon pricing scheme (45%) that those that believe they should not (37%).

A majority of respondents otherwise believe that a Coalition government should not repeal the NBN (63%), and a greater portion believe it should not repeal the MRRT (50%) compared to those that believe it should (24%).

Looking at the results by voting intention, Lib/Nat voters are also more likely to believe a Coalition government should repeal the carbon pricing scheme (72%), the NBN (30%) and the MRRT (44%).

Broken down by gender, male respondents (50%) are more likely than female respondents (39%) to believe that a Coalition government should repeal the carbon tax. Conversely, male respondents were more likely to believe that a Coalition government should not repeal the NBN (66%) compared to female respondents (60%) and also more likely to believe that they should not repeal the MRRT (54%) compared with female respondents (47%).